#142 My Childhood Running with Pokémon

November 21st.
It's just a weekday. Not a holiday or anything special.
However, when I see this sequence of numbers, I think, 'Oh.'

I think it's because it's probably the day I felt the most excitement when I was a child.
Why was I so excited?
It's because it was the release date of 'Pokémon Gold and Silver.'

As an aside, the release date for the next generation, 'Ruby and Sapphire,' is exactly the same.November 21, 2002, three years later.So, for those of us in our 30s who are the core Pokémon generation, 'November 21st' feels like a somewhat special day, doesn't it?

Well, maybe it's just me.

It's been a little over five months since I started note.
I haven't really touched on it much until now, but—
I love Pokémon to an 'extreme' degree.

I might have written about it in some article, but I also bought the latest games, Scarlet and Violet, and in the case of Violet, I've completed the Pokédex.
That is the level of affection I hold for Pokémon.

Looking back on my life, the presence of Pokémon is very significant.
They were always there in my memories of friends from elementary school.

Talking about Pokémon whenever we opened our mouths

I first learned about Pokémon when I was in the first grade of elementary school.
Most of the kids in my class were watching the Pokémon anime, and I remember well that I learned about it from there.

Both boys and girls would get excited talking about Pokémon whenever they opened their mouths.
'Squirtle was so cute yesterday, wasn't it?'
'How much of your Pokédex have you filled?'
When I think back to my school days, including elementary school, there's an image of boys and girls walking in separate worlds.
However, in the lower grades of elementary school, when it came to talking about Pokémon, everyone was walking in the same world.

And on the way home from school, we all sang 'Can You Name All the Pokémon?'
Pikachu, Dragonite, Slowbro, Pidgeot...
Even now, I somehow remember that sequence, and even if I hum it now, it feels somewhat pleasant.This song is nothing short of an invention.

The excitement of the original Pokémon evolving

For our generation, who played the first Pokémon, 'Pokémon Red and Green,' the original 151 felt like a kind of sanctuary.It is no exaggeration to say that those 151 were characters we interacted with as much as our own parents' faces.
—

Some of them evolving into completely new forms...!
The forms of Pokémon yet to be seen appearing in the next game...!
For me at the time, there was nothing more exciting than this.

Of course, there was no internet or smartphones back then.
The biggest source of information for getting the latest news was CoroCoro Comic.

Information before the release—the forms of unknown Pokémon were revealed there.
Pokémon have types like 'Fire' and 'Water.'
However, I remember that in CoroCoro at the time, even those types weren't revealed, and only the illustrations and the Pokémon's names were published.

That's why you could make all sorts of predictions.
What type could it be?
What kind of moves could it use?
It was Pokémon that further enriched the imaginations of children, which were already quite advanced.

Writing about a personal memory, when the Pokémon 'Scizor' was first revealed in CoroCoro Comic, I indulged in fantasies like never before.
Looking at the shape of its head, it must be Scyther's evolution...?
Wait, Scyther evolves!? Amazing!!
But how does it evolve? What do you use?
There was even a day during my elementary school years that I spent just thinking about the relationship between Scyther and Scizor.

The long-awaited release date, but however

The first Pokémon games were released on February 27, 1996.
The Pokémon anime started airing in April 1997.
The first episode of the anime—
Judging by the fact that Ho-Oh, a Pokémon that didn't appear in Pokémon Red and Green, was featured, the development of Gold and Silver must have been underway at that point.

However, the development of Gold and Silver was delayed again and again, forcing repeated release postponements.
Furthermore, in the middle of all this, a certain incident involving the anime also broke out. Both the developers and the children waiting for it must have been waiting with bated breath. I was one of them.

That is precisely why the date November 21, 1999, was so special.

Looking back at the long history of Pokémon, I think the release of Gold and Silver was an incredibly huge step forward. In a sense, I consider it a monumental date.

As a nine-year-old with zero financial power, I naturally couldn't get it on the release date. I decided to ask Santa Claus for it that Christmas. But,

due to its immense popularity, even Santa couldn't get his hands on it.

In particular, the platform, the “Game Boy Color,” was nowhere to be found. It is still fresh in my memory that the Nintendo Switch became scarce when the pandemic hit in 2020 and Animal Crossing was released around the same time. Almost the same phenomenon was occurring in 1999.

I still remember it today.
Crying my eyes out over and over again in the toy section of the department store...
While my classmates were getting their hands on Gold and Silver and having fun, that feeling of being gradually left behind by the times...

The fun times, the painful times.
Perhaps it was Pokémon that taught me those things first.

That is why, when I finally got the Game Boy Color and Pokémon Gold, and when I turned on the power to the Game Boy Color,

the joy of that moment was beyond anything I could have hoped for—!

Booting up Pokémon Gold, the shadow of Ho-Oh flying across the vast sky. I will never forget that sight for the rest of my life.

Together with Pokémon from here on out

It has been exactly 25 years today since Pokémon Gold and Silver were released. I deeply feel that 25 years have already passed since then. Happy anniversary, truly.

During my adolescence, I was sometimes teased, "Are you still playing Pokémon?" But,
isn't being able to say you love what you love the greatest happiness in life?

So, I have decided that even when I become an old man, and even when I become a grandfather, I will continue to love Pokémon. Because having something you can love is a happy thing.

Afterword

Actually, I have wanted to write an article about Pokémon many times before. But because my love for it was too strong, and
“Who is even going to read this anyway?” kept running through my head, I hadn't been able to write it until now.

However, since it is the anniversary of the Gold and Silver release, I decided to just go for it and write this article. I wonder if there are any Pokémon fans among the people on note? I hope there are...!

Being able to write that I love what I love. A place where I can express that without shame. I love the place called note just as much as I love Pokémon. Thank you for reading such a long article.